March 29, 2004

The Kamloops Wawa

The University of Saskatchewan Library recently acquired a full run of the Kamloops Wawa,
a newspaper published primarily in
Chinook Jargon between 1891 and 1923
in Kamloops, British Columbia.
The information about the exhibit
that the library put on to celebrate the new acquisition contains images of several pages.

Chinook Jargon is a pidgin based primarily on
Chinook and
Nuuchanulth (Nootka) that served as a trade language throughout the
Pacific Northwest. Very few settlers learned the native languages, such as
Secwepmectsín (Shuswap), the native language
of the area around Kamloops, so Chinook Jargon played a major role in communication
between settlers and native people.

The Kamloops Wawa was published in a French shorthand known as the Duployé shorthand,
which the Oblates of Mary Immaculate had decided was the easiest way to write the various
native languages that they dealt with in Southern British Columbia. They used this writing
system not only for Chinook Jargon but for English, French, Latin,
Lillooet,
Secwepmectsín (Shuswap), and
Nlaka'pamux (Thompson).
Here is the first page of the Shushwap Manual or Prayers, Hymns and Catechism, in Shushwap
published at Kamloops in 1906.

Duployé shorthand was a good writing
system for the languages whose sound systems it was designed for, such as English.
Indeed, because it was easier to write English in Duployé shorthand, which
had no arbitrary spellings, than in the usual English spelling with which we are
still encumbered, the Oblates encouraged settlers to learn it as a stepping-stone
to English literacy. It was a less than adequate way of writing the native
languages since it did not provide enough letters for all of their sounds.
Posted by Bill Poser at March 29, 2004 06:44 PM